Bright Lights
by Punzie the Platypus
Summary: AU. Hiccup, Merida, Rapunzel, and Jack go on a trip to the circus, which includes having the hardest of times finding a parking space, smashing up a game stall and watching their favorite acts perform. Mericcup.


_**Soli Deo gloria**_

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own HTTYD, Tangled, Brave, or RotG. This is a gift to my friend Eeyi for Christmas. Merry Christmas!**

"Correct me if I'm wrong, now, but am I the only one with a car?" Hiccup asked, to no one in particular. No one seemed to acknowledge him as they moved and poked and got annoyed at each other. Needless to say, Hiccup's big black car wasn't as big as he had said when they had made these plans.

"Rapunzel, ya got to move over!" Merida said.

Rapunzel had to shove a big mass of red curls out of her face just to see Merida hopping all across the car. "I've got a braid, Merida, and, no offense, it takes up a lot of room."

"I believe I had been actually the one who called shotgun, Merida," Jack made a point of saying, even though he was slouched in a side-seat, looking particularly smirky all crushed in the back. He had his curved cane in his lithe hand, which smoothed it, and he looked positively mischievous.

Merida squished Hiccup's face with her hand as she hopped about the car, making his face incredibly weird looking (more so than usual) as she hopped into the passenger's seat and sighing, put on her buckle. Turning in her seat to address Jack after becoming quite settled, she said, "Yeah, but I recall that this is mah boyfriend's car. I get first crack." She looked at Hiccup. "Aye, Hiccup?"

Hiccup looked from Merida to Jack. Rapunzel watched all this a little worriedly. "Ah, whatever works, I guess," he said.

"Ya aren't gonna be making a big ol' ruckus out of this, are ya, Jack?" Merida wondered.

"Not now. Don't sit settled, though. I plan to get back to you somehow," Jack said.

"Wow, I am so scared," Merida said, making Rapunzel smile a little, relieved that everyone had calmed down a little. Everyone straightened and faced the front, and Hiccup, looking into the front mirror, said, "Is everyone ready?"

"As ready we will ever be," Jack said cheerfully.

"Aren't we just so optimistic?" Merida said sarcastically.

Hiccup bobbled his head a little and said, "I'll take that as a good sign," and he started up the car and went down the road, relieved to have finally stopped at the last place on his list. Since he had the best of the cars, he was the guy everyone carpooled with. That and Jack didn't have a car and Rapunzel's mother, being overbearing, didn't allow her to drive, and Merida was only sixteen and couldn't drive without an adult in the car. Unfortunately, he was still young and gangly and covered in acne and freckles and was therefore (legally) not an adult, so she couldn't drive. Joy.

He didn't mind though. He was obviously the most sensible of them all and therefore the only one he really trusted to keep them alive. Besides Rapunzel, of course, but even she sometimes got caught up in the dreams they explored, and he was the only one left in stiff, cold, hard reality. So every time they would go someplace, he would be the only one who was able to drive them home.

He didn't mind, of course. He loved driving his sleek black car and he was excited to head off to today's adventure: the circus. He was also excited to see how his friends would like it. He was always the one to find these events and drag them to them. Otherwise, they would spend their whole time at the skating rink with Jack, the art studio with Rapunzel, or target practice with Merida. Oh, target practice. Jack got bored quickly there and played pranks on everyone. Rapunzel kept at her bow the entire time, though she had not a lot to show for her effort. He himself spent the first few minutes fumbling with the string. But then he watched Merida demonstrate for him. Dang, but she could get every target straight in the center every single time. He watched admiringly every time she did that. She laughed when she caught him staring at her, and that started it all, didn't it?

Now she was sitting in the shotgun of his car wearing jeans and a dark hoodie. She was humming to herself and her big mass of hair was bouncing in excitement. Hiccup sighed to himself and turned back to face the road. It was hard to keep his eyes off her, but unless he did, they would all DIE.

"OH!" Rapunzel gasped excitedly from the backseat. She drew close to the window and her hands flew to her cheeks in astonishment. "I can see the lights! The circus lights!"

Jack leaned against her to see out and Merida leaned forward excitedly. Before them were the lights of a show, all up and moving back and forth in bright colors. The sun was setting and so the sky was darkening into a beautiful dark red. The lights gleamed and flew back and forth, back and forth against the sky canvas, beckoning all to come forth and see the show.

"Hey, we're almost there, guys!" Hiccup said, relieved.

"Thank goodness," Jack said, getting back into his seat and yawning. His legs stretched out and crossed on Merida's seat, into her hair. "I'm getting tired of sitting still back here."

"Get yer feet outta mah hair, Frost!" Merida said, turning and scoffing as she shoved his feet abruptly away.

"What are we expecting to find at this circus, Hiccup?" Jack said, retrieving his feet coolly and starting up another conversation before Merida could lay a woman's wrath on him for daring to touch her hair with his pale feet.

"Well, I really hope to see the animal acts," Hiccup said. "You know how talented so many animals are, especially the wild cats."

"I really, really want to see the clowns," Rapunzel said. "My mother says that ruffians and thugs wear masks to look scary to rob you, but I'm not scared of them at all. They like to laugh and tell jokes. It's beautiful."

"I don't need to see any more clowns when I already hang out with you guys," Jack said, laughing drily to himself.

Merida pretended not to notice his joke. "I canna wait to see the danger acts. To see death-defying stunts! And the heights! I am not afraid o' heights! And it is so, so fascinating to see such people risk their lives for such sport!"

"What about you, Jack?" Hiccup said, looking in the mirror at his friend, who was looking out the window watching the world pass by. "What are you looking the most forward to?"

Jack was silent for a moment. Then he said, "I want to see the acrobats."

"I shoulda guessed that," Merida said, laughing a little. "You're so lithe, it's got to be the one thing ya of course want to see, Jack."

"I want to see if I can do what they do," Jack said quietly, but dangerously, as if it was a warning to the three of them of what he might dare to do.

"Um, how late as we exactly staying out, Hiccup?" Rapunzel asked as he launched them off an exit. "My mother can get really, really temperamental if we do something bad, like get home really late."

"Your mother is so—" Jack began.

"I'll get you home with plenty of time to spare, Rapunzel," Hiccup said. He gave Jack a raised eyebrow in the mirror. Jack shrugged, showing that he didn't care and that that was his impression of Rapunzel's mother. Needless to say, Dame Gothel and Jack Frost were at the opposite sides of the spectrum. It was only for Rapunzel and the sake of peace that they didn't have open warfare every time they met.

Rapunzel seemed relieved, but even that didn't diminish her excitement. She was the only one cheerful after twenty minutes of circling the block looking for a parking space. That time left Merida looking almost tired as she leaned against her hand and stared out the window dully. Jack was slumped in the back, practically falling out of his seat. Hiccup was trying to retain sanity as he craned his neck and asked Merida if there were any empty on her side of the parking lot. She returned a grunt to him and he said, "Well, looks like we're just going to be circling here for hours."

"Ugh," Merida said, and her hair hid her face.

Finally Rapunzel sat straight up and excitedly pointed out a parking space. Hiccup thankfully took it and as they all walked on the road leading up to the circus, they groaned as their legs were stretched, causing them to be sore and creak and croak.

"Yeah, let's never do that again," Jack said.

"That was a little bit painful," Merida said.

"Sorry, I couldn't find a spot!" Hiccup said in defense.

Merida took to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "'Isn't yer fault, Hiccup. Ya tried more than we did." This caused him to smile.

The circus took up a large playing field. A big tent took up the greatest part, and all around it were the stalls, the stands, the sights, the sounds, the little ducklings to the mother duck. The place was swollen with people. Some were carrying toys, pointing out games and playing them. Many were eating cotton candy and buttered popcorn and roasted peanuts. All were very bright, especially the clowns that were teasing several people.

"This is absolutely AMAZING!" Rapunzel said, smiling brightly and looking excitedly everywhere, wondering where they would start first.

"When does the show start, Hiccup?" Jack asked. His walking stick was across his shoulder, a hand holding it down casually.

"At eight. We've got a couple of hours to kill," Hiccup said.

"What are we plannin' to do?" Merida said, sounding excited to start. Then Rapunzel spied something, and Rapunzel ran to that something. Merida darted after her, and both gasped.

"What just happened?" Hiccup asked after a moment.

"They probably found something really big and really sparkly," Jack said. He laughed. "Come on, Hiccup."

"They are so adorable," Rapunzel said, pointing to the dolls and stuffed animals lining the inside of a game stall. The stall employee looked quite bored as Rapunzel said, "I could make those, I bet. Pascal would love that one!"

"What's this, girls?" Hiccup asked, as the two guys came to the stall.

"It's a game booth! You have to knock down eight targets and then ya get a prize!" Merida said. She shook Hiccup's right shoulder, a big smile on her face. "Ya gotta do it, Hiccup! Try it!"

"I'm backing out of this one," Jack said, holding up his free hand as a sign of peace.

"Are you going to try it, Hiccup?" Rapunzel asked.

"Um . . ." Hiccup said, not sure how to go about doing this . . . "why don't you try it, Rapunzel?"

"Step up to the plate, young lady. Come play the game," the employee said, sounding like he was dead and that he hated his job.

"I will," Rapunzel said, raising an eyebrow at the employee. She took off her purple purse, which had a sun stitched onto it (she had made it herself), and laid a couple of bills on the counter. She held her purse out to Merida, "Hold my purse, Merida," and rolled up her sleeves.

Merida took on a sassy look as she placed a hand on her hip and watched Rapunzel with a determined look on her face, wanting for her to teach that employee a lesson.

Rapunzel took the gun, took a deep breath, and then her slender fingers pulled the trigger. Surprisingly, her aim was good as she went across the board, whose figures were bounding up and down, bouncing and avoiding and getting taken down by her aim. Finally, when the smoke had cleared, Rapunzel shouldered the gun and said, smirking, "Well, I handled it, didn't I?"

She high-fived Merida and took down a large plush lizard as she stood back and said, "Hiccup, you really have to try it. It's exhilarating."

"Hiccup, come on! Make a girl proud of her boy," Merida said, after handing Rapunzel back her purse. Hiccup frowned slightly as Jack said, "Go on, Hiccup."

Hiccup bobbled his head. He most certainly wasn't afraid of failing. He just wasn't sure if he wanted to . . .

"Win me something, Hiccup?" Merida whispered in his ear. He turned to her, a little shocked, and she shrugged her shoulders and said, "Well?"

Hiccup straightened his shoulders and walked right up to the counter and put down the money. "Get me a gun. I am going to smoke this game, take the prize, and get the girl."

"Ya realize ya already got me, right?" Merida said loudly over the sound of the crowd.

"He's just psyching himself up. It's a thing guys do," Jack explained.

"Guys just lie to themselves in order to force themselves to do something?" Rapunzel said, sounding surprised and weirded out by the male gender.

"Yeah. Thing is, we have egos we keep up. But in reality we're totally freaked out," Jack said nonchalantly.

Hiccup had heard all of this over his shoulder. It was not exactly helping his confidence in his shooting skills, which quite frankly had not improved despite all the sports his father had him try out for and the help from Merida; it was just adding more pressure. "You realize I can hear you guys back there," Hiccup said, aggravated, as he was handed the gun.

"No pressure! We totally believe in you, Hiccup!" Jack said, whooping.

"Ya know, failing isn't so bad, unless you have to explain it to my dad," Merida said matter-of-factly.

"You can do it, Hiccup!" Rapunzel said encouragingly, clutching her lizard.

Hiccup turned back to them with a sour face. "Can you guys just be quiet, because you are REALLY not helping!"

Jack nodded and Rapunzel gave him a thumbs-up.

Merida went up to him and he said, "You know . . . I might not make it out alive."

"Wow, you're really going to exert yourself, aren't ya?" Merida said saucily, not believing him for a moment, but playing with his banter.

"Well, I—" Hiccup said, but Merida kissed him on the cheek and said, "Well, after all those hours of mah archery practice with ya, I expect good results. Or they're all for naught." She raised an eyebrow and grinned, her curls falling all over her face, and Hiccup nodded. He was going to do this. He wouldn't fail her.

"We're not getting any younger over here, Haddock," Jack said, playing in the dirt with his shoe.

Hiccup took a deep breath and the employee moved out of the way, looking like he was breathing in flies. The animals that bounced about the board danced and jumped and cackled as Hiccup shot again and again, feeling the brunt of the toy gun against his hands. He kept his stance firm and felt like he was going to get some bruises somehow as the game came to a close.

"Thanks for playing. Move along," the employee said.

"Wait, I shot eight! That's how much the black bear is!" Hiccup said. The rest of his friends joined him.

"Dude, he hit the right amount," Jack said accusingly.

"Get him the prize, NOW, before I call your manager!" Merida said.

The employee sighed. "He didn't knock more than two over. That's the point. He lost. Move along."

"That's not right! You don't have that written on any sign around here! You're making that up!" Rapunzel said angrily.

Merida had pulled out her cellphone. "What's your manager's number? I'm reportin' yer sorry butt."

The employee blew a bubble from his gum.

Hiccup put down the toy gun and shrugged off the brown burlap knapsack he had on his back. Out of all the extra stupid things like a toothbrush, pieces of apple gum, tape, small knives, and sewing supplies, he pulled out a very complicated tiny shooting gun.

"What the heck is that?" The employee asked in the same monotonous tone he had so rudely been using this entire time.

"Well, my invention. And right now, I want to test it," Hiccup said, and without so much as warning his friends, he held it steady and shot an almighty blast that rang through the air like the sound of a bomb and smacked against the board, knocking down ALL the animals and the entire wall. The stall wavered and collapsed on one side as the employee scrambled over the counter, falling at their feet with a bad sounding THUMP!

He stood up and, while having to look down at Hiccup, looked incredibly terrified of him. Hiccup reached over and picked up an unharmed black stuffed bear.

"Well," he said, in an innocent voice, "I think I won." He nodded. "See ya."

Merida beamed upon receiving the bear, and smirked at the employee. Rapunzel said, "It wasn't very nice meeting you," and Jack gave only a disapproving click of his teeth as they all turned on their heels and headed down towards the big top.

At the entrance the tickets were exchanged and they entered and looked, awestruck, at the big staircase of seats. Rapunzel ran, Jack running after her to catch her if she tripped and died, to find a seat, as Merida and Hiccup fetched crackerjack and cotton candy, which was almost as fluffy as Merida's hair. It provided a good joke as the two were juxtaposed. They laughed as they came to sit by Jack and Rapunzel, who was clapping as the lights came down and the ringleader came out and announced the show.

The show was absolutely brilliant. The animal acts were just what Hiccup had hoped for and more. Tigers and lions gracefully displayed their talents, nearly eating the heads of their trainers. The dogs danced and balanced on balls and bowed like real performers. They made Rapunzel squeal with excitement.

Merida was unimpressed by the horse acts and constantly interrupted Hiccup, who was fascinated by the tricks that an animal could do through time and hard work, about the conditions the animals lived in outside of the ring. Then the animals passed on and Hiccup sighed and sat back in his seat.

"They probably have rules about that now, Merida," he said.

"Hopefully. I got mah own horse and I would n'er mistreat 'im. Hopefully the same goes around here," Merida said, folding her arms while simultaneously eating cotton candy and clutching her black bear.

Hiccup cracked his back from leaning over to see as closely as he could as the clowns came out. All different sizes, of heights and wigs and big, baggy clothes to tiny skin tight suits, men and women grinning, ugly and beautiful and bright and abstract, came bounding out. They juggled and balanced on balls and waved at the crowd. They chased each other and did magic tricks and made the funniest of faces. Rapunzel cocked her head, her smile quirked into a little circle on the side of her face, as she took in the sights, trying as she could to remember everything.

The danger acts of performers riding on speeding motorcycles balanced on their hands through rings and being shot out of a cannon kept Merida at the edge of her seat. Hiccup leaned forward too; he himself was the fancy-free daredevil, and the two of them were captivated by the tight rope, the knife throwing; after that one, Hiccup had leaned back and caught Merida's attention. "You're never trying that. Ever."

"Ugh!" she said, burying her head in her arms, her curls bouncing all around her.

Jack had been acting bored for most of the acts, but his head lifted, his attention caught, when the acrobats came out. The trapeze artists held him fascinated; even the beautiful silk artists made him lean in his seat, his arms laying on his legs, his eyes following every move. Even as the circus came to a close after its big finale, Hiccup, Rapunzel clutching her lizard, and Merida clutching her black bear, kept a special eye on Jack as they hurried through the congested streets.

Jack noticed their stares when they were all keeping attention on him once they were buckled and had the car doors closed. "What?" he asked.

"Don't ya dare do anything stupid; don't ATTEMPT anything, or we will get you and literally strap ya to a chair until common sense enters your noggin o'ce more," Merida said quickly, laying down the law so fast he couldn't have a chance of saying anything sarcastically, smartly, back.

"Yes ma'am," Jack said, smiling.

Rapunzel next to him yawned and said worriedly, "Hiccup, you'd better hurry. The wrath of my mother . . . well . . ."

Hiccup understood the wrath of her mother all too well. "Got it, Rapunzel," he said, starting the car up.

Merida yawned, for the chain reaction coaxed her to do so. "That was a good idea, Hiccup," she said tiredly.

"Ya liked it, darling?" Hiccup asked, smiling at her.

Merida grinned back and kissed him quickly before he caused them to crash even though they were still inside the parking space. "Yeah. Ya could say I did. Be careful gettin' us home now, or mah mum will have your head."

Hiccup understood the wrath of her mother all too well. He was more scared of her than Merida's dad. So he pressed his foot against the pedal and drove them home, being the only one awake as the three others, exhausted, slept on peacefully.

**:)**


End file.
